Two talented young writers have joined the ClevelandClassical.com masthead as Nicholas R. Jones Young Writer Fellows for June and July. They will participate in all aspects of running a website devoted to classical music including conducting interviews, writing previews and reviews of events and posting them to the site, maintaining our concert listings, and managing social media.

The fellowships are named in honor of the long-time Oberlin Professor who lent his support and writing skills to the website from its founding in 2008 until his retirement in 2017. Major funding for the fellowships comes from the Mandel Foundation.[Read more…]

Re•Views

Conductor Alain Altinoglu brought music by his fellow Frenchpeople Debussy and Ravel to his guest appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra last week, along with an intriguing new work by Matthias Pintscher featuring principal flute Joshua Smith. The concert on Saturday, November 10 played to a large audience who may not have been lured to Severance Hall by the U.S. premiere, but who gave the Pintscher work a thoughtful hearing and its soloist a big ovation. [Read on…]

On November 7 in Hall Auditorium, Jonathon Field’s Oberlin Opera Theatre celebrated Leonard Bernstein’s centennial year with a professional-quality performance of his one-act opera, Trouble in Tahiti, and a revisiting of some of his Broadway triumphs in excerpts both brilliantly sung and crisply danced. [Read on…]

After their successful first Re:Sound festival last summer, the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project (CUSP) opened their new concert series season at the Bop Stop on Sunday evening, November 4. Featuring Aaron Hynds and Patchwork, CUSP continued its focus on combining local acts with more far-flung artists, and deepened its connection to the noise-based tradition of new classical music.

Last Saturday night, November 3, the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society presented the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet in an outstanding concert at First Unitarian Church. An especially imaginative highlight was guitarist/composer Robert Beaser’s short, single-movement Chaconne, receiving its world premiere in a version written for the LAGQ.

Good Company: A Vocal Ensemble presented what was likely the biggest project in the group’s 23-year history this past weekend — a two-day residency with Ola Gjeilo (pronounced yay-loh), a Norwegian-born composer now based in the United States. On Saturday, November 3, Gjeilo led a workshop about his music with members of Good Company and singers from Bay Village High School and elsewhere. On Sunday afternoon, Good Company music director Mike Carney led a concert of fifteen of Gjeilo’s works to a packed sanctuary at Lakewood Presbyterian Church, with the Amethyst Strings and the composer at the piano for several selections. [Read on…]

Quire Cleveland began its eleventh season on November 2 with new artistic leadership. Under the direction of Jay White, the professional chorus marked the dual celebrations of All Saints Day and All Souls Day with a cleverly devised, masterfully sung program at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in downtown Cleveland. [Read on…]

Walking into the Lab Studios by Glo, around 6:45 pm on Friday, November 2, I was met with a large crowd standing just inside the door listening attentively to poetry being recited from an adjoining, grotto-like space. Attractive art decorated the walls and a makeshift bar was set up in a kitchen area, while high-top tables held snacks. An area for a DJ was located against the back wall adjacent to a white stage area that resembled an in-ground pool turned on its side. It was clear from the get go that the evening was not going to be an ordinary classical music concert presented in an alternative space — this was going to be a happening. [Read on…]